The new owners of the Hooters Casino Hotel in Las Vegas are promising a USD 130 million hotel makeover and name change in a project that the company executive said could begin later this year. The redesign is expected to expand the casino area and change some of the hotel’s 727 rooms into suites.

Santa Monica, California-based Hedwigs Las Vegas Top Tier is completing financing for the USD 225 million purchase, and hopes to close the sale this spring, Hedwigs principal Richard Bosworth told the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Tuesday report. Los Angeles-based Dodd Mitchell is heading the redesign, which will use the current structure – the former Hotel San Remo just east of the Las Vegas Strip.

Hedwigs made its third USD 500,000 nonrefundable, nonapplicable fee payment on Friday to retain purchase rights for the property that Hooters put USD 130 million into renovating before opening in February 2006 as its first casino and hotel.

The investment group plans to announce a partnership with an as-yet unnamed “boutique” hotel operator to manage the rebranded property, and is negotiating with restaurant developers and nightclub owners, Bosworth said.

Bosworth declined to say if the property would remain open during the changeover, which could take 18 months.